After building a temporary network of WiFi hotspots to provide coverage for the 5,200 attendees at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple has set up a graphic visualization of the network itself.

Depicted within the Moscone West conference hall, Apple's WiFi statistics display presents available bandwidth statistics, a heat map of active hotspots, an animated depiction of network performance over time, and ongoing stats of all the visible WiFi networks (click to enlarge images below).

The presentation of displays highlights the efforts of Apple's network engineers, who have also installed over a thousand wired Ethernet jacks in the building to enable developers in attendance to set up a very fast connection suitable for downloading the 4GB new build of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, as well as new developer builds of iOS 5 and Xcode, Apple's integrated development environment for its desktop and mobile platforms.

Unlike previous years' WWDC events, Apple is exclusively distributing all of its new software builds to developers as digital downloads rather than via optical disk. The move foreshadows the company's announced plans to deliver Mac OS X Lion and Lion Server to its customers as a digital download this fall, exclusively through the Mac App Store.

Apple first announced the Mac App Store just last fall and rushed it into active production at the beginning of this year. Apple noted this week that it has already become the number one source for Mac software, largely making optical media obsolete as a way to distribute new programs.

Faster, cheaper, better, stronger

In addition to simplifying and streamlining the delivery of new software, Apple's Mac App Store also gives the company more leverage to push its third party developers to adopt new system features, ranging from security (Mac App Store apps must increasingly meet various security-oriented requirements) to the use of modern frameworks (the Mac App Store only accepts Cocoa apps).

Additionally, the Mac App Store, like the iOS App Store Apple launched in 2008, gives the company a cut of software revenues, which Apple uses to maintain and embellish the store itself. Both App Stores have also brought down the the price of software by following a low cost, high volume business model supported by the use of DRM intended to greatly reduce casual piracy.

Apple itself has dramatically reduced the retail price of its own apps, ranging from slashing the cost of Aperture by $120 to just $80, and lowering the price of its iWork apps for iPad to just $10 each. In the WWDC Keynote, the company revealed that Mac OS X Lion would be offered for just $30 rather than the customary $130 price of previous major Mac OS X reference releases.

A Wi-Fi network and Ethernet connections will be available to WWDC attendees. If you are using a MacBook Air, please bring an Ethernet adapter. All attendees should have a release version of Mac OS X v10.6.7 running on their systems. To connect to the Wi-Fi network at WWDC, enter the WPA2 password "wwdc2011" when prompted.

Apple itself has dramatically reduced the retail price of its own apps, ranging from slashing the cost of Aperture by $120 to just $80, and lowering the price of its iWork apps for iPad to just $5 each. In the WWDC Keynote, the company revealed that Mac OS X Lion would be offered for just $30 rather than the customary $130 price of previous major Mac OS X reference releases.

If I remember correctly, the iPad was introduced months before actual release into stores and there was a lot of talk about it not "fitting" between the iPhone and the laptop. Too much overlap. In other words, the iPhone could do a lot of what the iPad could do and the laptop could do the rest. This although true seems not be a problem with 25 million sold.

I just meant it as an example of how when Apple introduces something new like in this case no optical disc for the new OS, some people are instantly negative about it.

If I remember correctly, the iPad was introduced months before actual release into stores and there was a lot of talk about it not "fitting" between the iPhone and the laptop. Too much overlap. In other words, the iPhone could do a lot of what the iPad could do and the laptop could do the rest. This although true seems not be a problem with 25 million sold.

I just meant it as an example of how when Apple introduces something new like in this case no optical disk for the new OS, some people are instantly negative about it.

I was thinking that APPL should've sold at least 100 million by now. They are underperforming.

This will work for me, but I wonder:
When a hard drive crashes, how do people load the OS to a new drive?

And the answer is not necessarily "use your backup". I use a double backup, with TimeMachine and SuperDuper, but I know many people with NO backup at all. While I agree that is foolish, it does happen a lot.

Yet, I can get Cyberduck for free from Macupdate.com, but it costs $23 at the App Store. So much for lowering costs. And still no mention of a solution for corporate firewalls that block the App Store.

"There is no such thing as Free Public WiFi" is most likely a jab at Windows security... There was a virus going around on XP machines that created a network called "Free Public WiFi", any XP machine that connected to it would get the virus too.

Impressive wireless and wired network though. Having that many computers all chatting away on similar frequencies and not completely collapsing when everyone clicked "Download Lion Developer Preview" is quite an achievement. Shame Apple didn't use their own Airport hardware though, would have been a good thing to show off.

I think it would be a good idea for Apple to consider making WiFi available for Cupertino. It will no doubt be a big undertaking. But they could at least draw up what it would require, and provide the needed equipment. They could then have a separate company do the actual work. Of course it would be abig expense to them. But it would be a huge gift to the city that everyone associates Apple with. Maybe they would be given some kind of Tax relief.
Seem to remember that Google is planning on doing the same with one particular town. That was chosen for many direct-indirect reasons. They could have easily have chosen Mountain View, but they didn't. Apple could one up them there.
One other thing. Google isn't doing this just to be good guys (again). There is a business
to be made of this. There are LOTS of towns and cities out there that are paying close attention to what Google is doing. Could be some money there. All Apple would have to do would be hire another person (like the guy they had overseeing the Data Farm construction) oversee this project(s). I bet there wasn't very many Apple engineers involved in the actual construction.

I'm so over optical media for software distribution. It just means it's out of date the moment the DVD is pressed. I installed Snow Leopard using a bootable USB memory stick...and I've never looked back.

Did anyone else watch Steve's presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new 'mother ship', and note his comment about the auditorium?
Specifically about how they always have to come up to SF for presenations?
I guess things like WWDC keynotes will continue to be at the event venue, but suspect that we'll soon see all flat-out announcements taking place at the new facility.

When my HD fries, or I want to upgrade, I'll have to install SL, then download 4GB (again), to get the OS up.

Just give me the option to burn an ISO at least.

Then of course, if I have 3 macs to upgrade, that's 12GB of downloads each time. No thanks.

(I'm not interested in cloning or TM backups. I prefer clean installs.)

Some people only have 3G connections, this is ridiculous.

EDIT: Dorotea9999 I agree.

1) The fact that you'd download it 3x instead of once tells us you decided to react before thinking.

2) Then burn it to a DVD. This has been detailed since the first beta was released. Hell, it's the same routine of copying the previous DVD installs to a HDD's partition or USB flash drive that I've been using for years.

3) Time Machine isn't installing the OS, it's for your data and settings, and it's very handy. Even if you don't want your Library preferences copied to a new system having your data files restored and backed up with ease shouldn't make you too afraid.

4) Maybe I expect too much from posters on an Apple-based tech forum, but I do assume you understand how to use Disk Utility to create an bootable disc from a disk image.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Did anyone else watch Steve's presentation to the Cupertino City Council about the new 'mother ship', and note his comment about the auditorium?
Specifically about how they always have to come up to SF for presenations?
I guess things like WWDC keynotes will continue to be at the event venue, but suspect that we'll soon see all flat-out announcements taking place at the new facility.

I didn't see that. Link and time to start watching?

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

This will work for me, but I wonder:
When a hard drive crashes, how do people load the OS to a new drive?

And the answer is not necessarily "use your backup". I use a double backup, with TimeMachine and SuperDuper, but I know many people with NO backup at all. While I agree that is foolish, it does happen a lot.

As a Network Engineer for over 15 years, these are standard views and reports from a major Wifi Vendor (not Apple). Apple did not create this. They are simply just another WiFi Vendor customer (like many thousands of other corporate customers).

I'm so over optical media for software distribution. It just means it's out of date the moment the DVD is pressed. I installed Snow Leopard using a bootable USB memory stick...and I've never looked back.

Agreed! And there is the positive effect on the environment, too. No water to bleach the cardboard for the boxes, no trees used, no toxic colored inks, no fossil fuel used to make the plastic, no manufacturing waste and no fossil fuel used to ship or go to the store to pick it up.

To insist on an optical disc is short sighted, to say the least. Good for Apple!